mily is about to flourish, there are sure
to be happy omens; and when it is about to perish, there are sure to
be unpropitious omens. The events portended are set forth by the
divining-grass and the tortoise. When calamity or good fortune may be
about to come, the evil or the good will be foreknown by the perfectly
sincere man, who may therefore be compared with a spirit."

The tortoise and the grass have long since disappeared as instruments of
divination, which is now carried on by means of lots drawn from a vase,
with answers attached; by planchette; and by the _chiao_. The last
consists of two pieces of wood, anciently of stone, in the shape of the
two halves of a kidney bean. These are thrown into the air before the
altar in a temple,--Buddhist or Taoist, it matters nothing,--with
the following results. Two convex sides uppermost mean a response
indifferently good; two flat sides mean negative and bad; one convex
and one flat side mean that the prayer will be granted. This form of
divination, though widely practised at the present day, is by no means
of recent date. It was common in the Ch'u State, which was destroyed
B.C. 300, after four hundred and twenty years of existence.

CHAPTER II -- CONFUCIANISM

Attitude of Confucius.--Under the influence of Confucius, B.C. 551-479,
the old order of things began to undergo a change. The Sage's attitude
of mind towards religion was one of a benevolent agnosticism, as summed
up in his famous utterance, "Respect the spirits, but keep them at a
distance." That he fully recognised the existence of a spirit world,
though admitting that he knew nothing about it, is manifest from the
following remarks of his:--

"How abundantly do spiritual beings display the powers that belong to
them! We look for, but do not see them; we listen for, but do not hear
them; yet they enter into all things, and there is nothing without them.
They cause all the people in the empire to fast and purify themselves,
and array themselves in their richest dresses, in order to attend at
their sacrifices. Then, like overflowing water, they seem to be over the
heads, and on the right and left, of their worshippers."

He believed that he himself was, at any rate to some extent, a prophet
of God, as witness his remarks when in danger from the people of
K'uang:--

"After the death of King Wen, was not wisdom lodged in me? If God were
to destroy this wisdom, future generations could not possess it. So l